Monthly Global Burned Area Maps at 500m Resolution

MODIS/Terra+Aqua Direct Broadcast Burned Area Monthly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V006 provides monthly, global burned-area detection at a 500-meter spatial resolution. The product was decommissioned in July 2023, with users directed to the updated Version 6.1. It was produced by LPCLOUD using combined data from NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites.

Use Cases

• Mapping fire perimeters and burn severity by analyzing the Burn Date and Burn Data Uncertainty layers.
• Assessing seasonal and interannual wildfire trends using the monthly global gridded data over multiple years.
• Validating other fire detection algorithms by comparing results with the Quality Assurance and change detection layers (First Day, Last Day).
• Studying the impact of agricultural burning by cross-referencing burn dates with known cropland regions mentioned in the known issues.

Strengths

• Global spatial coverage enables continental-scale fire analysis.
• 500-meter pixel resolution provides detailed identification of burned areas.
• Monthly temporal resolution supports tracking of fire season dynamics.
• Includes multiple data layers (Burn Date, Uncertainty, QA) for validation.

Limitations

• Product was decommissioned in July 2023, indicating it is not the current version.
• Known data outages exist for specific months (e.g., August 2000, June 2001, August 2020).
• Algorithm may have issues accurately detecting cropland burning, as noted in known issues.

Provenance

Source

NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites via the MODIS instrument.

Collection Method

Algorithm applied to 500m MODIS Surface Reflectance and 1km active fire observations to create dynamic thresholds from a burn-sensitive Vegetation Index.

Time Range

Monthly data available from the MODIS mission lifetime until product decommissioning.

Freshness

Monthly update frequency; last updated 2022-12-31, but product is decommissioned.

Geography

Global coverage using the SIN grid projection.